Many current vehicles in the marketplace are equipped with communication equipment that enables a vehicle occupant to engage in verbal communications with remotely located entities such as a call center and/or other parties. In some cases, the communication equipment uses voice recognition software to permit the vehicle occupant to give verbal commands to control the communication equipment. Accordingly, the communication equipment typically includes a microphone to facilitate the vehicle occupant's uses of the equipment.
Human voices cover a relatively wide range of frequencies. It has been observed that as the frequency of a human voice increases, the effectiveness of some microphones to receive the human voice diminishes. It has been determined that wideband microphones are more effective at receiving human voices at higher frequencies than non-wideband microphones. In some instances, it has been observed that a wideband microphone provides a 2-3% improvement over non-wideband microphones when receiving high frequency voice transmissions in conjunction with voice recognition software.
It has also been observed that some mounting arrangements used to mount microphones to an interior surface of a vehicle can adversely affect the microphone's ability to receive high frequency voice transmissions. In some instances, the apparatus used to mount a wideband microphone to an interior surface of the vehicle can completely negate the benefits derived from the use of a wideband microphone and/or can diminish the high frequency voice transmission receptivity of non-wideband microphones.
Accordingly, mounting arrangements that do not significantly diminish a microphone's ability to receive high frequency voice transmissions are desirable. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.